Uttarakhand CM at centre of two scams

The high-decibel campaign by the BJP against 2G licence allotment is in danger of getting seriously compromised by the spate of scandals surrounding Uttarakhand CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

advertisement

Poornima Joshi

New Delhi

November 21, 2010

UPDATED: November 21, 2010 10:32 IST

The high-decibel campaign by the BJP against 2G licence allotment is in danger of getting seriously compromised not just by B. S. Yeddyurappa's insistence in sticking to his chair in Karnataka, but also the spate of scandals surrounding Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Besides the two major scandals - irregularities that pushed the CM to cancel as many as 56 hydro-electric projects and a PIL in the high court of Uttarakhand that accuses him of changing the land use of a 15-acre industrial plot worth Rs 400 crore and handing it over to a real estate developer for just Rs 3 crore in Rishikesh - a number of other allegations have completely eroded Nishank's credibility.

The charges concern irregularities in government appointment and allowing forgery of domicile certificates for the purpose of allotment of huge tracts of land.

Sources in the BJP said the situation has deteriorated so much after Nishank took over as CM that the two arch-rivals, former CMs B.S. Koshiyari and B. C. Khanduri, have joined hands to clean up the mess.

The two former CMs have informed party president Nitin Gadkari that if Nishank continues as CM, the party will lose badly in the next elections in 2012.

When the BJP president asked the two leaders, whose rivalry is common knowledge, whether Nishank's removal will not prompt them to fight for the CM's post, Khanduri and Koshiyari gave an undertaking.

"You have our word that if you appoint any of us as CM, the other will not object," they assured Gadkari.

But they refused to make their undertaking public. "The party knows everything. If something is wrong, it will be corrected," said Koshiyari.

Khanduri was more forthright.

"Some issues are being examined by the court. The party is aware of them. But as the matter is sub-judice, it is not right to make a political comment," Khanduri said.

However, Nishank claimed he is simply the victim of a vilification campaign.

"I am being victimised. People are spreading lies to defame me.

This whole Citurdia land scam? I was only following a BIFR order and now I am being accused of selling prime land at throwaway price. Where is the proof?" asked Nishank.

The Citurdia land scam is causing a lot of anxiety to the CM. According to petitioner Apurva Joshi, a member of the Independent media initiative society that filed the PIL in this scam, high court is set to decide on the matter any time soon.

Joshi runs a weekly newspaper Sunday Post that first highlighted the scandal.

The scam relates to changing the land- use pattern of an industrial plot of 50.47 acres in the Rishikesh tehsil of the state's Dehradun district.

The original agricultural plot was allotted for development as By Poornima Joshi in New Delhi an industrial plot in 1961 with the clear provision in the transfer deed that if the land is not used for the industrial purpose for which it was allotted, the title would revert to the government.

However, Citurdia Bio Chemicals Ltd, the corporation to which the land had been transferred, made an application in 2002 seeking permission to sell ten acres of the land.

Various officers of the government, including the additional secretary ( revenue), additional secretary (industrial development) strongly advised against selling of the land.

The company then made a separate application to the CM. While the officers opposed selling of the land, the company filed a separate case in the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) where the state government did not put its objections strongly and an ex-parte decision was taken to allow sale of land.

However, documents attached in the PIL before the Nainital High Court state that even after the BIFR order, the then CM N. D. Tiwari had sought legal opinion and decided against allowing the sale.

But when Nishank took over, as CM in June 2009, the file regarding the land sale was pushed through in a matter of just three days! Nishank, however, claimed he was only implementing the BIFR order and the decision to allow the sale was taken by his predecessor Khanduri.

"Khanduri ji decided to sell the land. I was only following orders," he said.